It used to be that Mac users would have to wait a year or more to get the same version of Lotus Notes that Windows users had. But IBM changed that in one fell swoop last week when it unveiled Lotus Notes 8.5 at the Apple MacWorld expo in San Francisco and delivered functional parity between the Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux versions of Notes. Version 8.5 also introduces XPages, a much-anticipated new development tool, and various security and administrative upgrades.

IBM expressed some much-delayed love for Macintosh at last week’s MacWorld show. The initial release of Notes version

Organizations that are looking to save money by moving from a Lotus Notes e-mail system to a Google-based e-mail system may want to check out the new CMT for Google Apps product launched by Binary Tree last week. The product, which is a specialized version of its Common Migration Tool (CMT) platform, automates much of the work of migrating Notes e-mail inboxes and account information to the hosted Google platform, and helps to ensure a smooth transition.

While IBM‘s Notes and Microsoft‘s Exchange (and Novell‘s Groupwise, to a lesser extent) continue to slug it out for

Vision Solutions last week announced that it’s now selling access to its Migrate While Active software using the services model. Migrate While Active Quick Start, as the new offering is called, gives AS/400 and System i customers a way to move to the new i 6.1 (i5/OS V6R1) release and the new generation of Power 6 boxes, without suffering from the sort of downtime normally associated with big upgrades.

Originally developed by iTera, Migrate While Active borrows technology and techniques from i OS high availability software to eliminate downtime during migrations. Like HA, the software keeps objects and data on

Global Software has launched a company-wide re-branding initiative aimed at boosting visibility of its Excel automation tools, including its flagship product, Spreadsheet Server. The move introduces a new Web site with portals for customers and partners and a new Global Software logo, all of which is intended to help drive sales.

The way Spencer Kupferman, Global’s vice president and company spokesman, sees it, a poor economy like ours is not the time to pull back in sales and marketing efforts. “We don’t change how we sell it,” he says. “What we found out there in the trenches is that IT

ACOM Solutions last week unveiled EZCapture, a new Windows-based application that indexes and feeds documents into ACOM’s document management solution, called EZContentManager. The new offering, like ACOM’s other products, are being aimed at i-based Power Systems (AS/400) shops looking for a low-cost method to get a better handle on their business documents.

EZContent Manager was launched by ACOM back in 2005 to fill what the company saw as a void in the market for affordable and easy to use content management systems. The SQL Server-based product, which starts at $10,000, provides index, archiving, and search capabilities, and a Web-based document

Infinite Software, the developer of migration and re-hosting tools for IBM i OS and other platforms, immersed itself deeper into the Hewlett-Packard world recently when it acquired a controlling interest in a Bay Area HP partner and sued the principals of another HP partner headquartered near Sacramento. However, most of that lawsuit was rejected by a federal judge last week.

Infinite Software, which previously went by the name California Software, last week announced that it has acquired a controlling interest in Roundstone Systems, an HP partner based in Oakland, California. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“Infinite

ICS, the developers of RF-Smart, have received validation from Oracle that the RF-Smart interface to JD Edwards World A9.1 works as advertised, opening the way to greater adoption.

RF-SMART hooks up automated data collection (ADC) devices, such as barcode readers and radio frequency identification (RFID) scanners, to JD Edwards World. Users who interact with RF-Smart, such as warehouse workers or route drivers, are greeted with an interface that looks very much like a 5250 World interface because ICS developed RF-Smart to look like World, right down to JD Edwards shortcuts, naming standards, and data dictionary.

That close integration between

System i shops involved in Java-based Web portals may be interested to hear about the latest release of IBM‘s WebSphere Portlet Factory. Big Blue says the latest release, version 6.1.2, brings enhancements that will allow developers to get Web 2.0 applications up and running quicker than before.

WebSphere Portlet Factory is a Windows-based tool designed to simplify the development of J2EE portlet applications and eliminate the need for direct coding. The software runs on top of WebSphere Application Server versions 6 or 7, and supports all major operating systems–including i5/OS and IBM i OS.

With version 6.1.2, IBM has

Foundries and companies in the die cast industry that use the latest release of B&L Information Systems‘ BLIS-400 ERP system will now be able to leverage the content management capabilities of Quadrant Software‘s IntelliChief suite much more easily than in the past, thanks to enhanced integration between the two products, the companies announced this week.

BLIS-400 version 7, which the Bridgman, Michigan-based company launched at its annual user conference in September, features more well-defined integration points to IntelliChief for the areas of accounts payable, accounts receivable, order processing, purchasing, shipping, and receiving, the companies said.

Doug Hinman, vice

IBM last week announced price increases for several enterprise tape cartridges models and InfoPrint printers.

IBM raised the prices on 32 versions of its System Storage 3599 tape cartridges, which are specialized versions of IBM’s proprietary 3592 tape cartridges (formerly known as Magstar) that bring with them specific capacities, features (such as support for WORM), and quantities. Like the basic 3592 cartridge, the 3599 offerings are designed for the IBM System Storage TotalStorage 1120 tape drive.

The price increases range from $44 on the 3599-7006 (a five-pack of cleaning cartridges) to $712; and go up to $277 on the 3599-2421